The 2024–25 UEFA Nations League B is the second division of the 2024–25 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the fourth season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA.
League B consists of 16 UEFA members ranked from 17–32 in the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League access list, split into four groups of four. Each team will play six matches within their group, using the home-and-away round-robin format on double matchdays in September, October, and November 2024.[1] The winners of each group will be promoted to the 2026–27 UEFA Nations League A, and the fourth-placed team of each group will be relegated to the 2026–27 UEFA Nations League C. In addition, the second-placed and third-placed teams of each group will advance to the promotion/relegation play-offs, played home-and-away over two legs. The League B second-placed teams will participate in promotion play-offs against the third-placed teams from League A, while the League B third-placed teams will participate in relegation play-offs against the second-placed teams from League C, both taking place in March 2025. In the play-offs, teams from the higher leagues will host the second leg, with the winners of each tie participating in the higher league for the next Nations League season, while the losers will enter the lower league.[2]
In the 2024–25 access list, UEFA ranked teams based on the 2022–23 Nations League overall ranking.[4] The seeding pots for the league phase were confirmed on 2 December 2023,[5] and were based on the access list ranking.[2]
The draw for the league phase took place at the Maison de la MutualitéinParis, France, on 8 February 2024, 18:00 CET.[6][7] Each group contained one team from each pot. Due to restrictions of excessive travel, only one of England, Iceland, Republic of Ireland or Wales could be drawn with Kazakhstan.
Following the league phase, the 16 League B teams will be ordered 17th to 32nd in an interim overall ranking for the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules:[2]
The teams finishing first in the groups will be ranked 17th to 20th according to the results of the league phase.
The teams finishing second in the groups will be ranked 21st to 24th according to the results of the league phase.
The teams finishing third in the groups will be ranked 25th to 28th according to the results of the league phase.
The teams finishing fourth in the groups will be ranked 29th to 32nd according to the results of the league phase.
First match(es) will be played: 6 September 2024. Source: UEFA Rules for classification: Ranking criteria
A final overall ranking will also be compiled, though this is only used to rank teams within their new leagues for the following edition of the competition.[2]
^On 2 May 2022, UEFA announced that Russia were suspended and automatically relegated from League B due to their country's invasion of Ukraine.[3] Though due to participate in League C for the 2024–25 season, Russia were still suspended at the time of UEFA's entry deadline, and thus were banned from the competition.
^CEST (UTC+2) for matchdays 1–4 (September and October 2024), CET (UTC+1) for matchdays 5–6 (November 2024).
^ abcDue to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine are required to play their home matches at neutral venues until further notice.[11]
